Comics

Mega-City Max Interviews: Our Future… their reality – Maxing out with editors Oliver Pickles & Ollie Hicks

19th July 2023

Mega-City Max is a brand-new comic special set deep in the world of Dredd, but coming at you with a distinctly different look at the world with the stories featuring teen- and post-teen versions of classic 2000 AD characters.

Five strips, all with a fresh, forward-thinking, fast-paced, action-packed attitude, this is the world of Mega-City Max!

Inside Mega City Max, a continuity-free new beginning for 2000 AD, we’ve got the hottest new talent in comics reimagining the best of the world of 2000 AD, completely stand-alone and aimed squarely at the teenage reader.

You’ll meet a young Galen DeMarco as she sets out as a P.I. after being kicked out of the Justice Department, you’ll see a young Devlin Waugh officiating at an influencer’s wedding where the smell of brimstone is in the air, you’ll laugh as Dredd’s old man-servent droid, Walter the Wobot, takes on his first stand-up gig, follow every violent play as the Harlem Heroes head for the Mega-City Aeroball Cup, and catch up with the latest fad to hit Mega-City One in Cranium Chaos.

Bringing you these five forward-thinking strips are some of the hottest breaking talent in comics today – Hannah Templer (Cosmoknights), Ramzee (Edge of Spider-Verse), Oliver Gerlach (Young Men in Love), VV Glass (The Last Witch), Lucie Ebrey (Amazing World of Gumball), Korinna Mei Veropoulou (Adventures of Croblin), and industry veteran Roger Langridge (Muppets, Hotel Fred).

Beginning a series of interviews with the talent behind Mega-City Max, we’re speaking with the two people tasked with putting it all and assembling all this talent – Oliver Pickles and Ollie Hicks. They’re the ones with the why, what, and how it all happened and just what to expect from this exciting new 2000 AD comic.

Ollie & Oliver, it’s you we have to thank for Mega-City Max if I’m right?

OLIVER PICKLES: Well, the initial pitch was co-written with Ollie Hicks, they had been working on the Regened collections, and were aware of the readership age-gap between Regened and 2000 AD.

Mega-City Max aims to bridge that gap in some ways. Another idea behind Mega-City Max is to refresh characters in various ways, removing potential obstacles for readers who are new to the world of Mega-City One.

I would say that it is ALWAYS the right time for more new comics, but Regened has proven that there is an appetite for alternate takes on characters, and Mega-City Max is branching out of that.

OLLIE HICKS: Well,I don’t remember where the initial spark came from, but this has been Oliver and I’s baby from the beginning.

What was the idea behind Mega-City Max and why is now the right time for it?

OH: I think with Regened going for a few years, if you were 9 when it first started you’d now be 13 and starting to look for different material. So why not have something for the readers who are growing up whilst also providing a new jumping on point for the huge audience of teens reading comics right now.

Now, unusually for a 2000 AD comic, there’s no Judge Dredd? What was the thinking there?

OH: I just felt there were more characters who would be more relevant for the new teen demographic we wanted to capture. 2000 AD has a huge stable of characters, it makes sense to play with all of them.

OP: ‘No Dredd’ was absolutely a rule. There has been a shift in recent years, and I was editing Mike Mocher’s I am the Law, with his constant refrain of ‘Dredd is supposed to be a warning, not a manual’ – I think that Dredd and what he represents to people not necessarily familiar with 2000 AD would have unbalanced the tone of the comic.

Just breaking in for a moment, Mike Molcher’s I Am The Law is quite rightly being lauded as essential reading for all and any who look at the world today and wonder where it’s all going so wrong. It’s an essential text for the ages.

MCM has definitely got a look and a feel to it as something that’s fresh and new. Obviously, that was editorially led, but what else were you looking for with the strips you commissioned?

OH: I just wanted art that felt cool and relevant and spoke to me. Mega-City Max is a city, right? So I wanted art and stories that focused on and reflected the excitement of a big city. Mostly I just wanted to work with really cool people, and the project delivered that in spades – people who we felt had a strong, youthful voice, that felt relevant, interesting and cool.

What was your thinking behind who you reached out to for Mega-City Max?

OP: One of the main aims of approaching creators was that we wanted a strong group of writers and artists who hadn’t necessarily worked for 2000 AD before, or at least not beyond a few bits here and there, but who were versed in teen/YA comics.

I think all the editors here read all kinds of comics, whether it is graphic novels from American publishers, webcomics, small press, self-published – we don’t exist in a vacuum, and we do pass other publishers comics around the office to each other too.

OH: I mean, who wouldn’t want to work with these people? These are people who make us in editorial laugh out loud, jump up in our seats, make us feel electric you know?

I’m extremely proud that this was my third outing with Ramzee, Korinna and Pris. All of those creators really get me as an editor, and I really get them as creators, and it’s a joyful process working with them. The entire team however were creators I’m greedy for more from, always.

Was it a deliberate decision on your part to look far and wide for the talent here and to go to voices not traditionally represented in 2000 AD? (Although saying that, the representation at 2000 AD has been more reflective of society in the last few years.)

OH: My personal editorial vision has always been to expand the roster of artists who we had on our books. I think Mega-City Max was building on the work of the 45 Years of 2000 AD artbook, which gave editorial an excuse to reach out to people we’d never otherwise talk to. That’s how Hannah [Templer] first worked with us, for example.

I gravitate in my personal art tastes towards queer, POC and/or marginalised gender storytellers, as well as local comics creators because I love British comics publishing, and I always like to reflect that in who I commission, because that’s my unique editorial viewpoint. That’s something new that I can bring to the comics I edit.   

OP: The representation question is a bit awkward for me to answer – on the one hand it wasn’t overly intentional, though I do believe we said we wanted a gay writer to write Devlin Waugh, but I also think it speaks of just how diverse the people who make comics are once you step away from the main stable to 2000 AD creators.

A few years ago someone said to me that the answer ‘I just want the right person for the job’ doesn’t really challenge my own biases towards art, it is my job to actually look at who is out there, scout talent and not gatekeep.

Absolutely, we all need to look outside of our current view of comics and find out that there’s so much going on beyond what we usually see and embrace all of that.

Okay then, moving inside Mega-City Max now – how did you decide on the line-up of strips in MCM?

OH: Harlem Heroes were obviously a shoe-in, but other than that I think it was just… who did we like? Who interested us?

OP: The initial line up of strips was a little different, but we definitely wanted a sports strip, a detective strip, and a supernatural strip, (and some humorous short comics). We had a pool of characters who might fit into those categories but, for instance, Hannah Templer didn’t take to our initial idea for the story she would be involved in, she had some ideas of what she wanted to write and draw, mainly that there had to be multiple female characters involved, and so we pitched her on the idea of DeMarco as a private investigator, with Hershey and Anderson as her friends.

Walter may seem like an odd fit – and while I would disagree that it shouldn’t be there I would admit that it is the most 2000 AD of the strips, I will take the hit on that as I had to nix Roger’s initial idea. Roger’s story fits, I think, but perhaps we should have gone with a non-2000 AD character.

For me the distinction is the characters, and at what point they are at in their lives, what decisions are they making to guide their life. The three main strips feature characters who had had a bit of a set-back in their lives, and they have to restart their momentum. I feel that teens can relate to things not entirely going their way, and having to make adjustments as they move towards becoming adults.

Was it a case of getting the creators involved first and seeing what ideas they all had or was it more editorially guided? Did you have a list of strips and characters that you thought would and wouldn’t work?

OH: It was very editorially guided. We reached out to everyone with very specific ideas of the characters, or if it was brand new strip, of the general story set up we wanted them to work with.

What’s the distinction between Mega-City Max strips and Regened strips in your opinion?

OH: For me, Mega-City Max strips are little older, can be a little naughtier, a little grittier too. This is only the first issue, so I’d guess you’d have to see how the strips develop. It’s also in the age of the characters too- with the exception of Walter and Max Normal, everyone is clearly teen in this.

The Harlem Heroes strip is one that’s moved complete from Regened, with Ramzee and Korinna’s story of these new Harlem Heroes switching to MCM quite perfectly here.

So what was your thinking with that, to actually bring a Regened strip across to MCM? Was it a strip that was already completed and planned for Regened or was it your decision to let Ramzee and Korinna  take it up to the teen level?  

OP: Harlem Heroes came before Mega-City Max, yes, but the idea of getting a new creative team who would revamp the characters/setting came from Ollie and the available space they had for that was in the Regened collections. Yes, it maybe does blur the boundaries between Regened and Mega-City Max, but I would say they fit far more into a teen category than an all-ages category – certainly with this new story.

OH: This story was always planned for MCM. I think Harlem Heroes has the ability to jump up a gear – if you see what Ramzee’s ideas are for this strip, they’re always very teen, very sports manga, because he’s really engaging with the history of the strip. It felt like putting Harlem Heroes in a teen setting would allow him to run the full gamut of his ideas.

Another great creator you’ve included here is the wonderful Lucie Ebrey, whose webcomic Muggy Ebes was essential reading all through its long run from 2012-2017. But she’s in MCM on a completely new strip, Cranium Chaos, something set in Mega-City One but with new characters. Was it you wanting Lucie in the comic and letting her have carte blanche?

OH: I wanted Lucie Ebrey in the comic from the beginning because she’s a star!

She’s an absolutely brilliant cartoonist and a jewel of the British comics scene. I’ve been a fan of hers for years. Her chaotic humour seemed like a perfect fit for a teen 2000 AD project.

We brought her the initial idea, I wanted like a Bill and Ted style duo and Oliver, I think, suggested the set-up of a different fad each episode. Then Lucie fleshed out the specifics of the characters and came back with the utterly brilliant and unhinged story idea.

OP: We wanted Lucie Ebrey in the comic. And Ollie and I had an idea for a Future Shock style format strip. Each episode would be about a fad that mega-citizens get swept up in. It would kind of help people understand just how wild Mega-City One could be. Lucie wrote a pitch that was a couple of paragraphs long, with a second option that was a paragraph long, and a third idea that was about two lines. Ollie and I both jumped on the two-line pitch as the one with the most comedic value, and then Lucie really delivered the goods with a story that is just on the right side of ridiculous.

What would you say to those who are already writing this one off as not ‘Proper 2000 AD’? – Although of course it IS proper 2000 AD, it absolutely is, it’s just 2000 AD doing more, trying more, being inventive and innovative, and not resting on its laurels… just as it always has!

OH: Well, in one way it’s not proper 2000 AD! It’s a separate continuity. In superhero comics you often have various books involving the same characters aimed at different groups – think of the DC Graphic Novels for Younger Readers line and the Black Label Line.

MCM is designed to be stand-alone, for people who are either brand new to 2000 AD, or are interested in new things to be done with the world. If you’re not interested in either of those things, the regular comic is still continuing on as usual.

But comics are already for kids. It’s kids comics that are making this medium so profitable. I believe passionately in comics for everyone: adults and kids – but 2000 AD is, at the end of the day, an ongoing comic. And ongoing comics can only exist if they continue to be relevant. So it’s gonna have to try new things.

Comics have already changed! Look at the Graphic Novel charts! It’s literally only a certain small demographic of comic readers who are struggling with this.

Absolutely spot on – hallelujah!

OP: Well…I can understand that people who like something don’t want it to be replaced, but that isn’t what Mega-City Max, or Regened, is doing. I think they are additive, bringing new ways of looking at the characters into existence.

It used to be that comic’s didn’t last too long before being folded into another, and 2000 AD broke that by aging along with its audience, sometime around the 10th anniversary milestone, or the introduction of Bisley’s painted art. And that ‘reader retention’ is absolutely not being taken for granted, but solely focusing on that has its own problems which everyone is trying to avoid with new variations on the characters. Artistically, 2000 AD has been quite varied, you cannot confuse a McMahon Dredd with a Bolland Dredd, and while people will have their favourite styles of art, I think that 2000 AD readers are quite receptive to new things. But the thing is that Mega-City Max isn’t directly aimed at those people. I hope those people like it, no scared cows have been killed. But the idea with Regened or Mega-City Max is to try and find new readers. And you cannot always do that by putting a replica of Prog 520 (I just plucked that number out of thin air) in front of new readers.

Asking what 2000 AD, and comics in general, has to do to survive is a big question, but it will always involve young people reinventing the medium. Don’t shackle yourself to nostalgia (I say that as someone who happily printed the 2000 AD Art of Kevin O’Neill: Apex Edition, I am not here to burn everything down)

No, the great thing about 2000 AD is surely that it’s there for EVERYONE, whether they’re a fan of McMahon, O’Neill, Bolland, McCarthy, Hicklenton, Gibson, Ewins, Talbot, Kennedy, Ezquerra, or any number of artists that have come after them – the brilliance of 2000 AD is in finding the next big thing, the next hot artist, usually before the rest of the comics world cotton on to them.   

Once this first MCM special is out, what’s a win for you – what are the things that will mean it’s a success?

OP: A win would be that we get to continue with Mega-City Max, taking it beyond a one-shot and into a mini-series or even an ongoing. The plans for the next Mega-City Max would be to keep the creative teams on board, developing the stories that they want to tell.

OH: I don’t really think of MCM in terms of ‘wins’, since I’m not at Rebellion anymore. I would be pleased if it became an ongoing, but I don’t have any stake in it.

Yes Ollie, I saw that you’d moved on to go freelance as a writer and editor – and good luck from everyone here with your continued success with that! – but whilst you were there, were there already plans for the next MCM and how it’s going to develop going forwards?

OH: I couldn’t possibly comment on this one. You’ll need to see if Oliver will crack and spill the beans!

OP: Well, future strips include a whole list of characters that we didn’t get the chance to use this time around, from Chopper’s teenage rebellion to a Hershey and Anderson Cursed Earth road-trip.

Well, I’m not sure that’s really a plan or a wish list from Oliver. Let’s see where we are in a year’s time, eh?

Ollie, now that you’ve left Rebellion/2000 AD, in terms of your freelancing, what’s happening with you now?

OH: Yes, I’ve moved on from Rebellion and I’m now focusing mostly on my writing. My debut, Grand Slam Romance, a queer softball magical girl comic (co-created with and drawn by Emma Oosterhous) was published by Mariko Tamaki’s imprint Surely Books this year, and there’s two more books in the series so I’ve been working on those. In terms of editing, I’m co-editing an 18 plus sapphic anthology with Tab Kimpton and Niki Smith called Succulent. Both Grand Slam and Succulent are dream projects and I couldn’t be happier to be working on them.

Thank you to both Ollie and Oliver for taking the time to chat – they’re both incredibly busy people and it’s particularly bad for Oliver because he’s also busy sorting out the 2000 AD presence at San Diego Comic Con – he’s been writing the answers to our questions whilst sitting in the departure lounge at Detroit en route to San Diego!

For more from Ollie Hicks, you really should go check out their website, Hickscomics,  follow them on Twitter, and do all the other socials stuff. As for Grand Slam Romance, it really does look fantastic, please do yourself a favour and give it a shot!

As for Oliver Pickles, Tharg doesn’t really let him do much else beyond work, work, work on projects like Mega-City Max and in his role as graphic novels editor. But he does have a Twitter you should follow. Tharg tends to let things like this slide as long as the Pickles droid does his tweeting in the couple of hours off every week that he’s given for sleeping.

You can, and really should look out for the Mega-City Max special from out now from comic shops and 2000 AD’s web shop.